Inside the Jersey: Northeastern Huskies (1995-96)

Well, it's Halloween, which means it's time for a journey into the football graveyard in search of a treat from a long-lost program. And who do we see scaring up the kiddies but a Northeastern Husky, searching for some long-ago teammates so he can put a team back onto the field? OK, I'm rambling ... "et's go inside the jersey with this mid-90s Northeastern jersey, a style originally profiled here back in early 2016.

The Jersey: Northeastern 1995-96. The '94 style had a College Football 125th anniversary patch on the front, which may or may not have been worn on this one and been removed after the season. Can't tell.

How It Was Acquired: eBay, for about $40. Not bad, considering Northeastern jerseys don't appear that often.

Who Made It: Wilson.

Who Wore It: If my parents hadn't tossed out my old Maine-Northeastern programs from my college days, I could tell you.

Size: XL. This jersey may be from the 1990s, but it has a couple hardcore 80s features: The bottom is cut very high, so you can see which players have innies or outies; and the fishnet mesh pattern, perfect for those November games in 30-degree weather. 

The "2" has shown some wear and tear,
and is a different shape than the "2"s on
the front and back.

Condition: Some definite game use, as evidenced by the worn-out "2" on the sleeve. A photo from a 1990s Cauldron yearbook shows the road versions getting use in practice, so I suspect the homes may also have been recycled, as well. 

Other Stuff: The aforementioned "2" is slanted, while the "2s" on the front and back are straight across. ... The original jerseys had names on the back, and this shirt has some evidence of a nameplate removal ... The Yankee Conference patch on the front is intact. The YC's last year as 1996 before it morphed in the Atlantic 10 the next season ... My jersey is distinctly maroon in color (who made these, Harvard or UMass grads?). I've seen action photos of both maroon and bright red Huskies jerseys.

Ah, the days of the Yankee Conference. Northeastern
tried to join for about 25 years before it finally was admitted
in 1993.

Final Verdict: An odd jersey of a defunct team, perfect for Halloween. 

More Northeastern uniforms from beyond the grave: 2008-09, 1997, 1994-96, 1989-90, 1982-86, 1976-77, 1973-75, 1963-68, 1936, 1935.

Bryant Bulldogs (1999-2000)

Long before Bryant College fielded its first football team in 1999, the Smithfield, R.I., school was well known in football circles as the site of the New England Patriots' training camp from 1976-2002. Any mention of Bryant, and you knew the NFL preseason was right around the corner. (Well, other than looking at the calendar, duh.)

In the late 1990s, Bryant decided to get into the gridiron game itself and fielded its first team at the Division II level. Surprisingly, the Bulldogs were a strong team out of the gate, going 5-4 overall in 1999 and 4-4 in the Eastern Football Conference (a forerunner to the Northeast-10 Conference). On Sept. 11, 1999, Bryant defeated Assumption, 20-13, in its first game. On Oct. 2, Bryant won its home opener over Mount Ida, 31-20, before 4,817 fans -- a mighty impressive number for D-II in these parts. There were a few clunkers along the way -- a 60-20 loss to American International -- but all in all, the Bulldogs carried themselves very well for a first-year team.

The first Bryant Bulldogs team, 1999.
No truth to the rumor the school was named after Bear Bryant.

The uniforms haven't changed much over the years. To this day, the Bulldogs wear a plain gold helmet, black jerseys and gold pants. The helmet has never featured any logos, numbers or alternate versions. How many schools this century can say that? No, not even Penn State. (OK, Alabama and Auburn are two, and I'm sure there are others.)

Some early Bulldogs in action, 1999.
Note the odd location of the "Bryant" word mark.
Also note the "BC" for Bryant College in the sleeves.
The school has since changed its name to Bryant University.

The numbers on the front are HY-OOGE -- almost like the vintage Seattle Seahawks  jerseys. Also note the odd location of the "Bryant" wordmark, which is off to the side and not below the neckline, where wordmarks usually reside.. (It did move to the neck on 2001.) And true confession time: I'm not exactly sure what's on the patch on the jersey front. All I've been able to discern is that it features a yellowish football with bluish lettering underneath. I suspect it's an Eastern Football Conference patch, but I've been unable to find a copy of the logo, not even after a couple hours digging through archive.org. I don't believe it's an inaugural season patch, because it also was worn in 2000.

The rather sad-looking Bryant logo from '99 (top)
and the more bad-ass bulldog adopted a few years later (above).

A few more Bryant unis:  2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2004-06.

   

An advert for Bryant's 1999 homecoming, which also
featured the Bulldogs' historic first home game. And Victoria Jackson!

Yale Bulldogs (1934-36)

In previous posts (and GG's Facebook page), I've mentioned the lack of consistency in college football uniforms in olden times. Often, slight changes are made year to year and the older jerseys are kept in circulation as a cost-cutting measure. 

(An aside, and yes, I'm cheating since it's about pro football: Lars Anderson's outstanding The First Star, about Red Grange's 1925-26 barnstorming tour with the Chicago Bears, notes the Bears owned only one set of uniforms and often had to no time to clean them because they were playing on almost-daily basis in order to cash in on Grange's fame. Thanks to the tour's success, the Bears later could afford more unis.)

The Yale Bulldogs of 1936 were no exception. The Sons of Old Eli (not Manning, thankfully) continued to wear their 1934-35 jerseys while they added a new set with a different friction-stripe pattern. The older tops used a navy pattern across the front, while the new ones used bluish-gray stripes off to the sides, perhaps to accommodate the new numbers on the front that debuted that year. The pants, meanwhile, changed changed to fiction stripes on the back, after previously wearing what appears to be a darker shade of tan/gold.

The inconsistency carried over to the only-for-'35 white jerseys: Some have a pattern that mimics the home blues; others are as plain as practice jerseys.  

The 1934 (top) and 1936 (above) Yale teams. Look closely and you'll find
inconsistencies in the '36 home jerseys, particularly the two players flanking
Larry Kelley, who's wearing the "Y" on the front. The "Y" jersey was worn
by the captains in preseason publicity photos, and never in an actual game.

Yale dons the white jerseys against Princeton, 1935.

Another oddity: Yale and navy blue go together like the Ivy League and wine-and-cheese tailgating (hey, I've been to Ivy games, and it's no Pabst Blue Ribbon crowd!), but the Bulldogs wore a decidedly lighter shade, almost a royal blue, from the early 1930s until about 1944. There's something just wrong about Yale and a lighter blue. At least the sacrosanct white helmet was there, although the famed "Y" on the sides was three decades away.

Yale (in the white helmets) takes on Dartmouth in 1934.

Two other notable things about Yale from this era, neither of which have diddly to do with uniforms. In 1934, Yale (only 3-3 at the time) upset heavily favored Princeton, 7-0, despite playing only 11 athletes for the ENTIRE GAME. This marked the last time in the pre free-substitution era a major college team used zero subs in a game. This team has been immortalized in two books, Norman L. Macht's Football's Last Ironmen (a pretty good read, and it gives tremendous insight as to how football was played in the 1930s) and William N. Wallace's Yale's Ironmen (which I haven't read, but I ought to). 

The Yale ironmen of 1934 (white helmets, light jerseys) during
their historic 7-0 win over Princeton.

The other notable item concerns one of the stars of that '34 Yale team, end Larry Kelley, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1936. (The cover of the Wallace book claims he was the first Heisman winner, which is half right -- he was the first winner after the Downtown Athletic Club's trophy was renamed for legendary coach John W. Heisman, and the first after balloting was opened to honor the best player nationwide, rather than the best player east of the Mississippi River. Chicago's Jay Berwanger won the first DAC trophy in 1935.) Kelley, an end, caught 17 passes for 372 yards in '36, back when 17 catches made for a great season. (Today, it might make for a great game.) In failing health, Kelley auctioned off his Heisman in 1999 for more than $300,000.

Larry Kelley.

After his death in 2000 (Kelley shocked everyone by taking his own life), Sports Illustrated wrote this excellent, if sobering, profile of him.

More Yale uniforms that'll make any Bulldog salivate: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2006-11, 1997-98, 1994, 1996, 1979-82, 1978, 1974-77, 1972-73, 1967-68, 1965, 1959-60, 1954-58,  1949-53, 1930. Rivalry Week: Harvard-Yale.

Larry Kelley disturbingly resembles Vladimir Lenin in this 1930s photo,
but it appears to have been part of a bet on his pro football ambitions, or lack thereof.